Replies

1. 
   RSRose | Sep 06, 2002 11:06pm | #1

   Bert,

   Use a ball peen hammer. Lightly tap the flat side of the square on an anvil or other solid metal under layment.

   Lightly tapping at the outer corner will reduce the inner and outer angles. Tapping at the inner corner will open up the angles.

   Rich

2. 
   Alan | Sep 07, 2002 02:48am | #2

   Bert,

   I don't know what you did, but not twenty minutes ago I straightened a square using that same method.  I used a punch, and put two dings in one side, as close to the corner as I could get it, and one on the other side.  It's now square.

   Mine too was not quite ninety degrees.  I've straightened one that was more than ninety with the same method; but to close the angle required more dings than it does to open the angle.

   Before I did anything else, I'd try the punch again.

   Alan

3. 
   oldlou | Sep 07, 2002 03:14am | #3

   The old standard punch method is the best way. Use the little prick punch (can I say that ?) for fine tuning and a big fat, flatter angled, punch for major moves. Keep in mind though that metal is easy to stretch, and a mother to shrink.

   Are you absolutely sure of your reference? Why? As a nail banger of the old school , any framing square that, when reversed, indicated a "fair" degree of squareness, was just fine for rafters and such. 

1. 
   UncleDunc | Sep 07, 2002 03:23am | #4

   The best way? Using just the hammer, with no punch, also works, and I think the square looks better without the punch marks.

4. 
   noone51 | Sep 07, 2002 05:45am | #5

   Bert, I just spent about 5 hours fixing a set of stair stringers that I laid out with a bad framing square. I had just tuned it but it went right back to being bad within a couple of hours in the hot sun. I replaced it with a new one for $17.00.

   You can try to fix it if you want but the cost of a new one is far less then the cost of the errors a bad one will cause.